Guest: Oscar Dufour a PhD at Institute of Light and Matter in Lyon, France

00:00 – Intro: a researcher with a rich and diverse background

04:10 – What is crowd dynamics, and why does it matter: fieldwork at Lyon’s Festival of Lights revealed the science behind crowd behavior

11:47 – Tragedy in South Korea: A look at the Halloween crowd crush that claimed 158 lives

13:52 – The dangers of dense crowds: Understanding the tipping point between flow and chaos

17:38 – From reading to observing: the stories of collecting real-time crowd data

23:26 – Rethinking crowd density: impressive novel approach reveals the truth behind the statistical mis-estimations

32:00 – Flattening the human form: 3D-to-2D projections of male and female anatomy

36:47 – Simulating simple physical interactions: The hidden physics behind how we bump, sway, and move in groups

41:00 – Decision-making in crowds: introducing a new layer to simulate behavior in motion

50:54 – Modeling complex decisions: more on how people make choices in dense urban environments

56:50 – The science of everyday movement: what crowd dynamics can teach us about daily urban life

1:01:00 – The dark side of urban data: potential risks of collecting big data on human movement

1:02:41 – Real-world applications and gained insights

1:06:23 – Urban planning in sci-fi vs. reality: ‘AI won’t solve everything… but it can help…’

1:12:10 – Can crowds be controlled?

1:17:00 – Are we predictable agents?

1:19:30 – Do we have free will?

1:26:01 – Advice to aspiring PhD students diving into research